When Vickie Wang, a rising comedic talent, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she is not only thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the administration,” she stated. Or if she ventures there, she ensures it isn't captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share content in which I directly criticize the government … I believe this is a learned behavior from China.”
The comedian, 39, lived in Shanghai for almost ten years, departing in 2022. By 2025, she relocated to America. When she got there, she embarked on an intense period of “revenge bingeing on democracy,” going to talks, protests, and delving into the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a noticeable shift in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, whereas here I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or those with experience in the country, perceive as eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed regarding his respect for Xi Jinping, the nation's strongman leader. He has described him as “fantastic”. When they reached a temporary truce in the trade war on Thursday, the camaraderie between both figures of nations with vastly different political systems was evident. And after decades of optimism in America that closer ties with the East may help the growing nation to liberalise, in the current administration, it seems that America is being pulled in China's path, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The president, Trump, is trying to mobilise the masses to marginalize or weaken established figures … similar to events in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, many in China have viewed American governance via the perspective of China's historical period. Be it the rallying of young people to execute the leader’s will, or purging organizations of those deemed opposition, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to America, though absent the same levels of force.
However after the turmoil of the initial period under Trump has calmed, a new, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which in different ways seems recognizable to numerous Chinese individuals.
‘The Beacon Has Become Dimmer’
The deepest parallel between the US today and China is the crackdown on free speech.
Deng Haiyan, turned CCP critic, found himself in a controversy recently, similar to what he once faced in China. He has lived in America for several years, having fled the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, following the passing of a public figure, he posted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who were fired as a result of expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced significant backlash. Relatives was doxed and he was accused of being a Chinese spy seeking to divide the US.
“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.
Deng’s backlash originated from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of social surveillance bears similarities with the East.
“In terms of going after dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues that are sensitive … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something observed in the East now as too,” she said, adding that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for ideals, since openly discussing domestic politics in the country is dangerous. But now, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”
“We used to see America as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, typically, behind closed doors, critical of China’s political system, now perceive it less objectionable than America’s, he stated. “It’s sort of difficult to acknowledge this reality … but post-COVID, the government appears to be pursuing the right thing in improving the environment and developing electric cars and investing in hi-tech,” Zhang said, while “the West, exemplified by America, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of stakes in American firms has prompted comparisons with the East, where the distinction between state and private industry is frequently unclear.
Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a startup specialising in mineral refinement, following similar stakes in other companies deemed vital to national security. These moves have left some investors concerned that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. In October, multiple media outlets among others refused to sign to a Pentagon policy that required they only report on government-authorised news. American judiciary have halted or reversed numerous Trump’s actions, something that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, specializing in China, said: “America could descend into its gravest challenge of its history, far more severe than it is now, and it would remain more free, more open, and more liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor observes that although many intellectuals in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to official requests concerning DEI policies and free speech on university grounds, in the East, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. Administrators, who are selected by the government, “have no liberty refuse. They dare not defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures that were once confined to repressive regimes. An academic at an American college once outspoken on bilateral matters declined to speak for this article. He said: “The truth is, I fear of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader now than say anything bad
